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Indirect Effects of Fluid Intelligence on Creative Aptitude Through Openness to Experience

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Abstract

The intelligence-creativity relationship has been extensively investigated. While previous studies mainly focused on the relationship between intelligence and creative achievement or creative process, the present study examined the relationship between intelligence and creative aptitude. We measured participants’ creative aptitude with the Williams Creative Aptitude Test and fluid intelligence (i.e., Gf) with the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices. We found that Gf was positively correlated with creative aptitude of curiosity and imagination. Further analyses showed that Gf has an indirect effect on creative aptitude of curiosity and imagination through the personality of Openness to Experience measured by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. These results suggest that Openness to Experience plays a critical role in the process through which Gf may influence creative aptitude.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31230031), the National Basic Research Program of China (2014CB846101), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91132703 and 31471067). We wish to thank members in Liu Lab for their help in data collection.

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Correspondence to Yiying Song.

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Liu, X., Liu, L., Chen, Z. et al. Indirect Effects of Fluid Intelligence on Creative Aptitude Through Openness to Experience. Curr Psychol 38, 563–571 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9633-5

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